Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Bookishly extravagant. Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Today we're inside the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the humble act of opening a book took on grand architectural ambitions. Founded in 1837 by 43 Portuguese immigrants, just 15 years after Brazil's independence, the institution eventually moved into the building seen here, completed half a century later in a lavish Neo-Manueline style. Shelves soar over 70 feet around a vast reading room, crowned by a monumental stained-glass skylight that makes daylight part of the design.

The building became a bridge between two countries: its façade was carved in Lisbon, shipped across the Atlantic, and assembled in Rio. So striking was the result that it was ranked among the 20 most beautiful libraries in the world in 2014. Opened to the public in 1900, it now preserves hundreds of thousands of volumes, making it the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside Portugal. Yet beneath all that ornate grandeur, the original idea remains wonderfully simple: give people access to books.